Spent Friday night at the Rainiers with Travis, just the two of us.  Had a great time!  We didn’t get any foul balls even though Travis had his mit.  We usually have at least one foul ball enter our area each game but wouldn’t you know it, the time we have a mit with us none of the foul balls come our way.

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Alex is 21 months old (well 21 and a half) and he is 100% boy.  He has figured out how to make himself fart and is using this new found skill to entertain and disgust the family.  Toni blames me, and she probably should.  What can I say, I think it’s funny.  I guess it wont be so funny then he pulls this trick in line at the grocery store.

Alex picked up another trick all on his own.  When I ask him “Where is poopers peepers?” he smacks the front of his diaper.  I did not teach him that one, he just started doing it.  I assume he picked it up from our potty time books.   Still trying to get him started on potty training but it’s a slow go.  He is going to be a late bloomer.

We have a new nightly routine where I take him upstairs with me when I get ready for bed.  I put him in the jumpy while I take a shower, then we head off to the “big bed” and watch TV and play games until he gets tired enough to fall asleep.  It’s good bonding time.

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Mom turned 60 yesterday and we spent the day at the Mariners game.  Thankfully, the Mariners pulled out a rare win and a good time was had by all.  Saturday we surprised mom with a party at the Harmon Hub in down town Tacoma.  The place was empty and the food was great.

Toni had what she considers some of the best fish n chips ever while the boys rolled through plates of smoked salmon.  I had a custom created pizza that was probably the best tasting pizza the Tacoma area has to offer.  Seriously, I have no idea why this place was not packed.   Great food, great drinks and excellent service.  The only knock is the lack of parking in the area.

We are teasing mom that she can qualify for the senior discounts now… she is not amused.  I have no room to talk, I’ll be hitting the big 40 this year and I am told it’s all down hill from there.

This is my crack at tilt-shifting an image using a photo of Ichiro from last August. Game was at Safeco vs the Red Sox.

Toni got a pair of tickets like this a few weeks ago from a manager at her place of employment, and we had a blast. The entire Rainiers staff were great, we never felt like we were “in the way” and that they were just doing their jobs. They really seem to enjoy what they are doing and it shows. Made buying our tickets an easy choice to make.

I really enjoy AAA baseball and like watching the guys that are trying to make their way into the majors. It’s a different game and you tend to see some pretty cool things happen.

This is really a perfect time to catch the Rainiers as they re pretty deep with talent and there are several guys that have a shot at making it to the majors the first time, or make it back to the majors a second or third time. I’m interested in watching Jeff Clement more than anyone else. He’s a kid that will make a pretty big splash in the majors if the Mariners can figure out what to do with him.

Our seats are in section RB14, row 1. Stop by and say hello if you happen to be at a game.

The Nintendo Fan network allows you to use your Nintendo DS to view replays, player stats, chat, play games and order food for $5 per game.

Setup is pretty simple. You select the DS download and play option and download the software to your Nintendo DS. Once loaded, you enter your user name, the network password provided to you and your section, row and seat number.

The first thing we did was order food. The menu has a decent selection of food and beverages (including alcohol, woo!) but it does not include the entire menu of items available in the stadium. We ordered burgers, chili dogs, sandwiches, nachos, peanuts and beers which were delivered to our seats in 10 minutes flat. Taxes and service fees (tips) were included in the price of the order.

Next I tried the replay and video modes. Video is fast but very low quality and was probably the least impressive part of the service. The video is the same thing that plays on the screens throughout the stadium and it was easier to watch it on those.

The ability to bring up current player stats for both teams was a nice feature and I used this quite a bit during the game. The stats were complete and current, including stats for Adam Jones who was called up from AAA Tacoma the day before for the Mariners.

A similar service allowed me to check current scores around the league for games played that day. I was able to keep an eye on my Yankees while they beat up on the Royals 8-5. Stats were not included, which would have been a nice feature.

The chat feature is decent but limits you to using canned messages and replies. You can bring up a list of other people on the network and send/receive messages like “What’s your favorite team” and “I just caught a fly ball”. It’s cheesy but fun. I spent most of the time chatting with someone named “Ms”, and knew a message had arrived from them when a mail icon on the front screen would flash. There were at least 100 users on the network during the game out of a crowd of 46,377 people. I’d love to see them allow users to type their own messages but understand why they don’t do this.

Games are included. There is trivia, find-a-word crossword style game, and a memory match game where you have to match tiles on a board to clear the level. We spent most of our time with the trivia game and enjoyed it. When you complete the games a leader board opens up so you can compare your scores with other fans on the network.

Five bucks bought a lot of convenience and I would be more than willing to use the service again. If they can improve the video playback and open the chat features up to include custom messages this would be the perfect service offering for Nintendo DS baseball fans.